When to introduce chicks to solo (and mostly blind) hen?

[BackyardDinos]

Attempting to keep this short, but there are a lot of moving parts

Our original flock is now down to a single hen-- her name is Hope and she's been mostly blind since day one. She gets around mostly okay but definitely isn't quick or nimble! Hope was buddies with another hen (named Sally Ride), who died this past week.

We have six day-old chicks arriving in about two weeks.

Our coop is a version of The Garden Coop, so the henhouse is elevated within the predator-proof* run (I know there's no such thing as fully predator-proof, but it's been bulletproof so far).

We planned to keep the six new chicks indoors for 2-3 weeks and then move them outdoors to a waterproofed section of the run under the henhouse, where they could see, but not interact with, the two adult chickens (Hope and Sally Ride) until the chicks were larger. We worried about teenaged chicks harassing Hope, but felt that Sally Ride would keep the chicks in line and defend Hope. But Sally Ride died earlier this week.

I don't think that Hope poses much of a physical risk to the chicks-- her vision is so bad that she's not able to target a stationary piece of fruit, let along a moving chick. Should we introduce her to the chicks earlier than we originally planned? If we wait too long to introduce them, I'm afraid the chicks will attack Hope.

If we introduce the chicks to Hope sooner rather than later, what are the the logistics here?

1. Chicks will be eating started feed, but Hope eats layer feed.
2. Hope needs access to the nest box, which is accessed via the hen house.
3. Adult food and water are in the run, below the hen house.
4. Chicks will probably need access to the brooder panel for 6-7 weeks (upstate NY-- our average low temperatures at that time of year are around 45F).

I'd appreciate any suggestions and/or help with brainstorming the best solution here. Thank you!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have had a couple blind hens. One was much like yours-blind from birth. I didn’t notice because she had a hatch mate who kind of helped her around. When that chicken went away (huge mistake on my part) I put some new pullets in with her and she did not do well. My advice is not to overwhelm your lone hen. Pick out the lightest colored pullet (most visible) you have and introduce it to her alone-preferably setting where they both have lots of room to sus each other out. A pen might not be a good idea in this situation but you’ll have to feel that out. I would try to get the pullet to kind of bond with the hen so that when you introduce the rest in a see-no-touch manner there is a sort of bridge between the blind hen and the pullets.

 

[Rose the Legbar]

Honestly, as soon as you could I would put your chicks outside with her. I would have a see but no touch method so she can hear them and know they are there before letting the littles in the same space as her. Like the user said above me, pick out your sweetest and most docile chick and put them together to see how the chick will react to her.
You can change all of the feed to the chick starter feed, it won’t hurt your hen. If you do choose to do that, you could get a small bucket of oyster shell or calcium for her to eat beside her food bowl.

 

[BackyardDinos]

My advice is not to overwhelm your lone hen. Pick out the lightest colored pullet (most visible) you have and introduce it to her alone

Ahh, unfortunately we're getting all Ameribella chicks, so they won't be particularly high-visibility. But this is a neat idea, to start with a single-chick introduction!

 

[BackyardDinos]

Honestly, as soon as you could I would put your chicks outside with her. I would have a see but no touch method so she can hear them and know they are there before letting the littles in the same space as her. Like the user said above me, pick out your sweetest and most docile chick and put them together to see how the chick will react to her.

How long do you think you'd do the see-but-no-touch method? Maybe not in terms of actual time, but in terms of comparative chicken sizes?

 

[BackyardDinos]

A pic of our coop for reference. We planned to temporarily enclose (and winterize) the area under the hen house and use that space as the outdoor brooder-- so the chicks can see Hope, and she can (maybe) see them, but there's a physical barrier of hardware cloth between them.

When it's time to take down the barrier, will the chicks likely follow Hope into the hen house to roost at night? Or will they try to roost under the hen house (in their temporary/former home)? (of course we can move them into the hen house each night until they get the hang of it, but it's nice when they figure it out on their own!)

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

The reason I am not sure the see-no-touch intro is a good idea here is because the hen is not likely to harm the chick. She will have enough trouble figuring out what it is let alone attacking it. And the chick will be nervous without the other chicks so it won’t be a threat to the hen. So they will be on equal footing, pecking order wise. If the chick is white or buff Hope might be able to see it a little and sort of establish dominance just by virtue of being bigger. But because it’s only one chick it won’t overwhelm or stress her out. They might bond. I would do the see-no-touch for an hour or so just to see how they act. If Hope ignores the pullet while it calls for its flock mates then I would let the pullet out. If she shows interest but doesn’t seem stressed, I would let the pullet out.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

You want Hope to be the boss but she is dependent on other chickens to be kind to her. She has size in her favor now. My blind hen did ok because she and her hatch mate were bonded by the stress of being moved from one home to another-I bought them as a pair. So Weezy followed Florence around. Once Florence was gone she needed a very stable environment to know where the food was, where the water was, etc. You don’t have that last hurdle but Hope will soon be outnumbered so she needs a buddy in the new flock who will not let the others pick on her. All the pullets at once will probably freak her out (that’s what happened to my Weezy) and keep her away from food and water.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Ahh, unfortunately we're getting all Ameribella chicks, so they won't be particularly high-visibility. But this is a neat idea, to start with a single-chick introduction!

She might do ok just by her other senses. Pick the chick with the best temperament

 

[Rose the Legbar]

How long do you think you'd do the see-but-no-touch method? Maybe not in terms of actual time, but in terms of comparative chicken sizes?

Depends on the birds honestly. My older girls are very mean to young chicks so I waited a lot longer than I usually do to let them all in the same area (until around 7 weeks of age). Since your hen is calmer then I would definitely allow the little ones interact face to face with your hen a lot sooner though.